[I Think My Girlfriend Hates Me] Ronnies feedback

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Look, it's Nicotine Girls II, evil version! Which is to say, Sean Musgrave's I Think My Girlfriend Hates Me. It reminds me a lot of the movie Hexed, and as such, seems best if played for raw comedy, with the joke basically being on the guy character; otherwise there's no real point.

This game definitely struck me as something I'd like to play once, but couldn't see any point to trying again. The characters and situation are just place-holders for a single set of dice interactions - "role-playing" by almost any definition of the word, with the possible exception of putting on funny voices and hats, has little place in what's going on.

Some of the system puzzles me just a little. I don't know why you'd choose Dumb Luck, unless it's to keep Suspicion down, but why would you do that either? Also, shouldn't his Suspicion increase if he aborts communication? After all, she's acting funny.

The game mainly suffers from a weak climax. Boyfriend victory seems especially uninteresting, and the Showdown seems unfocused.

I greatly appreciate the uncompromising "yes, she's nuts" content, which made me laugh out loud several times during reading. I would almost play it, but it needs baking at every point

Best,
Ron

[sirogit]

The reason you'd want to use Dumb Luck is it would give you a chance to Communicate Hopelessness down, which means you're less likely to bite it at the end. Which is the very reason I didn't want Suspicion to increase with aborted Communication, I figured it'd weaken the benefit of Dumb Luck.(I imagined communication to be a very awkward thing for the boyfriend to attempt at any time, and him aborting it would usually be based on his slight whim morever then his girlfriend's very real antagonism.)

Now, I don't have any big pretenses for the game, but I figured the key part of it has to do with looking at the dice before making your decision, determing how fucked up the situation really is, and yet be shackled to this guy that can only choose to resolve it slowly as if it was some kind of normal relationship quibble, or just deny the whole thing.

I would have to admit that I myself don't really see much intereast in playing it twice; by the end it was a lot more roleplaying concept then game, but hey, it's short. I wasted atleast ten times that many pages reading in the early 90's.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Sean,

I figured the key part of it has to do with looking at the dice before making your decision, determing how fucked up the situation really is, and yet be shackled to this guy that can only choose to resolve it slowly as if it was some kind of normal relationship quibble, or just deny the whole thing.

I'm totally with you on that. I even think it would be really fun to play, especially over-the-top. "Hey honey, that's a nice axe you're carrying. What's it for?" [she quickly lowers the axe from over her head] "This old thing? I uh, I was going to slice the ham." "Ham for dinner? Yum!"

So what do you think would be a good next step for developing and clarifying the game? Are you interested in doing so?

Best,
Ron

[sirogit]

I'm not terribly intereasted in devloping the game further, but if I did, I'd focus on adding more functions of what happens in game besides Communication and do some combination of open-ending the game and making better endgames.

Thanks for the critique.